Searching for Saddam, Live

Slate and the New America Foundation begin their "Future Tense" series of events with a Feb. 26 discussion in Washington, D.C.

Please join Slate and the New America Foundation on Friday, Feb. 26, for a conversation with Slate's Chris Wilson, New America's Peter Bergen, and others about the surprisingly high-tech hunt for Saddam Hussein in 2003 and how the lessons from that search continue to change U.S. war-fighting.

In a series being published in Slate this week, Wilson tells the story of how a team of innovative U.S. soldiers captured Saddam Hussein by using Facebook-style social network theory to crack the network of families protecting him. Wilson explores the implication of such social networking for other military operations and asks why the United States hasn't been able to get Osama Bin Laden using the same methods.

The "Searching for Saddam" discussion will take place at the New America Foundation, 1899 L St. NW, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 26. We'd love for you to attend and join in the conversation. Please register here.

This event also marks the formal debut of "Future Tense," a new partnership between Slate and the New America Foundation focusing on emerging technologies and their transformative effects on society and public policy. We at Slate are delighted to be working with New America, a think tank that, like Slate, takes a rigorous, creative, and playful approach to important issues. Future Tense will bring together issue experts and provocative thinkers from all disciplines to look beyond today's headlines. Both Slate and New America will be complementing these discussions with original Web content and exploring new ways to continue the conversations online. (Slate and New America will be streaming the "Searching for Saddam" event live on our Web sites.)